L’Alpe d’Huez, France – Floyd Landis is wearing the race leader’s yellow jersey again at the Tour de France, regaining it Tuesday in the punishing Alps where a former teammate-turned-rival made quite a name for himself.
That teammate, Lance Armstrong, who happened to be in L’Alpe d’Huez as a cheerleader, ended up witnessing the American’s winning ride.
“I’d love to see the jersey stay in the States,” Armstrong said.
Though he admitted “a little friction here and there” with Landis in the past, none of that was apparent on this day.
“If I was a betting man, I’d certainly put my money there right now,” he said. “Floyd has been great all year long.”
And all he needs to do is stay that way through Sunday, with the bright maillot jaune on his back.
“I would like to keep it,” Landis said. “I can’t think of a reason why I would give it away now, but if that scenario arises then it’s still a possibility, I guess – but it would be unlikely.”
While not by design, Landis regained the lead by hugging the wheels of one top rival and outpacing the others he worries about most. He cemented his status as the man to beat by placing fourth in the 15th stage, the Tour’s entree into the Alps, with a grueling uphill finish at the legendary mountain.
Landis, who grew up in eastern Pennsylvania’s Mennonite country, said he plans to ride conservatively in two more tough alpine stages, with an individual time trial on tap before Sunday’s finish on the Champs-Elysees in Paris.
Now, potential contenders such as Germany’s Andreas Kloeden, Australia’s Cadel Evans, Spain’s Carlos Sastre and Russia’s Denis Menchov will have to outpace Landis to win. And they are all within three minutes of him.
Landis said his main concern was Kloeden, a T-Mobile rider who finished second to Armstrong in the 2004 Tour. The German had lost time in the Pyrenees last week, but was the only cyclist to keep up with him in the stage.
“I’d never written him off completely, and I can’t do so with the other guys, either,” Landis said. “I have to be careful that I, myself, don’t have a bad day. Things change quickly.”
The byproduct of hewing to the German’s wheel was that Landis finished 1:39 ahead of Spain’s Oscar Pereiro, who had seized the yellow jersey from him Saturday, and reclaimed the race lead.
“It was just as well with me if Pereiro kept the lead, but I had to stick with Kloeden – that was my objective,” Landis said.
Frank Schleck of Luxembourg won the stage, finishing the 116-mile trek in 4 hours, 52 minutes, 22 seconds.
“To win on the Alpe d’Huez is fantastic,” Schleck said. “I think I will need some more time to realize what has happened to me.”
World champion Tom Boonen of Belgium dropped out of the race.
